Article of clothing



March 10, 1970 L. E. MILNER 3,499,172

ARTICLE OF CLOTHING Filed March 1, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Mme March 10, 1970 L. E. MlLNER v 3,

- ARTICLE or cnomme 7 Filed March 1, 1968 2 Sheets-$heet a hm F7616. 7- I wksvrm United States Patent 3,499,172 ARTICLE OF CLOTHING Lucy Eveline Milner, Rothley, England, assignor to Wolsey Limited, Leicester, England Filed Mar. 1, 1968, Ser. No. 709,760 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Mar. 3, 1967,

10,067/67 Int. Cl. 41b 11/00, 9/04 US. Cl. 2-240 Ill Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to an improved article of clothing and particularly a garment for ladies wear in association with a foundation garment.

The present fashion trend towards short skirts is tending to popularise a garment which combines a pantie or brief with leg-wear and this introduces a difficulty in the wearing of a foundation garment other than a pantie girdle, since the leg wear is not suited for attachment to the foundation garment and the required downward pull on the latter required to maintain it correctly in place is missing. The invention seeks to provide a garment by means of which this disadvantage can be largely or wholly overcome.

In accordance with the invention there is provided a nether garment which embraces the hips of the wearer and has leg portions which fit closely to the wearers legs below or above the knees, which garment incorporates provision for attachment of suspenders at appropriate positions around the upper parts of the leg portions. The garment is conveniently one which combines leg portions with a pantie or brief part. The leg portions may be stockings having feet as well as legs, though complete leg and foot portions need not be provided so long as the garment can fit closely to the wearers legs and provide sufficient hold thereon to enable suspenders to exert a downward pull on a foundation garment. The garment may be a knitted garment or one formed of woven fabric having stretch characteristics.

In one form of the improved garment the leg portions are adapted to fit closely to the wearers legs below the knees and are detachably secured to thigh embracing portions of the upper part of the garment. This will enable the leg portions (which may be stockings with feet as well as legs) to be replaced for the purpose of renewal or change of pattern or style, or detached and used separately if and when required.

By providing for attachment of suspenders at appropriate positions on the leg portions of the improved garment such garment may be worn with a normal foundation garment (i.e., one fully open at the bottom) and suspenders attached to the foundation garment may be fixed to the nether garment at the places where suspenders attachment is provided for, thereby holding the leg portions of the nether garment in place and also retaining the foundation garment in its downwardly drawn position as required.

The provision for attachment of suspenders on the upper leg portions of the nether garment may be effected in various way, for example by afiixing suspender tabs or by providing a special portion of fabric similar to a short turned welt extending partly or wholly around each leg portion, or by providing a special reinforced area of fabric in the garment (preferably having some fullness in the fabric) which fabric area can be stretched and folded to displace it from the remainder of the fabric in the manner of a tab and then have a suspender affixed to it. Where a tab portion or welt portion is provided it is conveniently formed on the inside of the garment. Alternatively, an opening may be formed in the fabric bounded on the lower side by reinforcement, through which opening one part of a suspender may pass to permit attachment of the suspender to the reinforced fabric.

The improved nether garment may have a fabric welt or welt portions knitted automatically on the machine by which the knitted garment is produced in a similar fashion to the knitting of a turned welt in hose manufacture.

Examples of convenient forms of a garment in accordance with the invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and will now be described with reference to the drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 shows a complete garment incorporating the invention with the garment inside out,

FIGURE 2 is'a fragmentary view of part of the same garment with a portion broken away, and shows the outside of the garment outermost,

FIGURE 3 is a view of a modified form of garment incorporating a modification of the invention,

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged detail view showing, somewhat diagrammatically, a portion of fabric in cross section on line IVIV of FIGURE 3,

FIGURE 5 is a face view of a portion of fabric illustrating a further modification,

FIGURE 6 is a view corresponding to FIGURE 5 illustrating yet another modification, and

FIGURE 7 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view illustrating diagrammatically the formation of a tab the section being taken approximately on the line VIIVII of FIGURE 6.

Referring firstly to FIGURE 1 the garment shown has leg and foot portions 10 and 11 similar to ordinary stockings which may be knitted of sheer construction or micromesh or any other desired construction, and a pantie portion 12 which if the legs are of lightweight may also be of lightweight, or if preferred, of heavier weight than the legs, or spliced construction. Around each leg portion there is shown a welt or all-round tuck 13 of double thickness, the two thicknesses being joined to one another and to the upper and lower part of the garment along the line 14. The welts or tucks 13 serve as a means for attachment of suspenders depending from a foundation garment which is open at the bottom.

The garment shown in FIGURE 1 is constructed by knitting two tubular blanks similar to stocking blanks but being substantially longer so as to provide tWo halves of the pantie portion 12. These are subsequently split down facing sides and seamed together with the interposition of a crotch portion 15 so that the upper portions of the blanks are joined by a front seam 16 and a corresponding seam at the back and by means of the crotch part 15. The double thickness portions 13 which extend continuously round each upper leg part (the one on the right of FIGURE 1 being shown broken away to illustrate its folded construction), may be formed simply by folding the leg portions to double form and seaming them along the lines 14 after the blanks have been knitted. Conveniently, however, the doubled portions 13 are formed as narrow turned welts during the procedure of knitting the blanks and the appearance of a doubled part formed in this way is illustrated in FIGURE 2.

A welt-like folded part 13 can be formed at a suitable stage during knitting a circular blank on a circular knitting machine by withholding spaced small groups of needles out of knitting activity so that they hold their last iformed loops whilst the remaining needles form the welt like portions 13 of fabric, Walewise lines of yarn floats 113a being formed at the positions of the withheld needles. On completion of the portions 13 the small groups of needles which have been held inactive are brought back into knitting activity so that they complete the welt portion 13. This produces a somewhat ornamental effect on the outside of the tubular blank giving the appearance of short joining stubs 17 of fabric, FIGURE 2, and interposed spaces 18. A sequence which is found particularly convenient in practice is to have groups of three needles held out of knitting activity and intervening groups of seven needles employed to knit the welt part 13. The control of the needles may be by means of jack butts laid out in such arrangement that small groups of butts occur below a certain level and these are selected or non selected, to provide that their related needles will remain out of knitting activity during the formation of the welt portion 13.

FIGURE 3 shows a modified form of garment in which leg and foot portions 19 and 20 are knitted separately from other tubularly knitted portions from which a pantie portion 21 is formed, the upper end parts of the stocking portions 19 being indicated at 22 as overlapping the lower end parts of thigh embracing leg parts 23 of the pantie portion 21. The parts 22 may be attached to the leg portions 23 in any convenient way, for example by frictional attachment using strips of short pile fabric respectively on the inside of the outer part and the outside of the inner part, which can be impaled one on the other, or by clips or otherwise so that the stocking parts 19, 20 are detachable from the pantie portion 21. With such garment the suspender attaching means may be of any of the forms hereinbefore referred to, the particular one illustrated in FIGURE 3 having short tabs 24 on the insides of the leg parts 23, these being attached by short rows of stitching indicated at 25 in FIGURE 4. The tabs will be positioned at suitable places to correspond to suspender locations so that the suspenders can be attached directly to the tabs 24.

FIGURE illustrates another alternative manner of attachment of the suspender showing a portion of the fabric at 26 around the position at which a suspender attachment is desired, the fabric being formed with an opening 27 extending in the direction sideways of the garment so that one part of a suspender can be passed through the opening 27 and the area of material immediately below the opening gripped by the two parts of the suspender. Conveniently, a reinforced area such as indicated at 28 is formed below the level of the opening 27 and either confined to the neighbourhood of the opening or extending as a band completely around the leg part 'of the garment, to provide added strength to the fabric to be engaged by the suspender.

FIGURES 6 and 7 illustrate a further alternative manner of suspender attachment. In this form areas of fabric indicated at 29 at suspender locations are reinforced and preferably knitted with some fullness in the fabric for example caused by loosely knitted stitches as by quality control. The loose knitting enables the fabric to be bunched together into a tab like form as shown at 30 in FIG- URE 7 so as to form a means for suspender attachment.

The improved garment is advantageous in a number of respects. With the provision for suspender attachment the suspenders can be fastened exactly as with stockings but the leg portions of the garment can be held in place more straightly and neatly than is the case with normal stocking welts. Moreover the suspendering on the improved garment tends to relieve excessive strains from the gusset area of the garment thus adding to its life.

The invention may be applied to various types of the garments known variously as pantie stockings, stocking briefs, tights and other designations whether they are of thick or thin construction and whether they are of plain or patterned structure or crochet or not construction and whether they are of knitted or woven fabric. The improved garment could thus supersede the present Wearing of stockings and briefs as these garments in various weights are suitable for wear in all seasons.

What I claim is:

1. A ladies nether garment having an upper portion to embrace the hips of the wearer, leg portions extending to the feet of the wearer, and means around the upper part of the leg portions for attachment of suspenders from a separate foundation garment.

2. A. garment according to claim 1 in which the attachment means are a number of tabs extending partially around each leg portion.

3. A garment according to claim 1 in which the attachment means is a short turned welt extending wholly around each leg portion.

4. A garment according to claim 1 in which the attachment means is a reinforced area of fabric in the garment for the attachment of a suspender, which fabric area is stretchable and foldable to displace it from the remainder of the fabric in the manner of a tab.

5. A garment according to claim 1 in which the attachment means comprises the formation at a location for a suspender attachment of an opening in the garment fabric bounded on the lower side by reinforced fabric, through which opening one part of a suspender may pass to permit attachment of the suspender to the reinforced fabric.

6. A garment according to claim 1, wherein the provision for attachment of suspenders comprises the formation at a location for suspender attachment of an opening in the garment fabric bounded on the lower side by reinforced fabric, through which opening one part of a suspender may pass to permit attachment of the suspender to the reinforced fabric.

7. A garment according to claim 2 in which the tab incorporates an elastic yarn.

8. A garment according to claim 3 in which the short turned welt incorporates an elastic yarn.

9. A garment according to claim 4 in which the reinforced fabric incorporates an elastic yarn.

10. A garment according to claim 5 in which the reinforced fabric incorporates an elastic yarn.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 812,168 2/ 1906 Fedden 2240 1,816,475 7/ 1931 Emery 224O XR 2,697,925 12/ 1954 Goodman 66-177 FOREIGN PATENTS 6,619 3/1910 Great Britain.

746,278 3/ 1956 Great Britain.

327,463 7/ 1935 Italy.

6,405,818 11/ 1964 Netherlands.

JAMES R. BOLER, Primary Examiner U .S. Cl. X.R. 

